The SEI community is now gathered at St Mary’s Monastery, Kinnoull, Perth, from Monday 24th to Sunday 30th August for its 2026 Orientation Week.
Orientation Week marks the start of the academic and formational year. It is a time for the community to worship, to learn and to rest in God. It includes the intake of 10 new students as well as the return of continuing students to their formal Initial Ministerial Education – Phase 1 (IME1).
The year begins with 25 students: 22 from the Scottish Episcopal Church and 3 from the United Reformed Church.
The Opening Eucharist took place on Monday with the Rt Rev Ian Paton, Bishop of St Andrew’s, Dunkeld and Dunblane, presiding and Rev Dr Anna-Claar Thomasson-Rosingh, Acting Principal and Director of Contextual Formation, preaching.
One of SEI’s incoming students, Emily Ballard-Nairn, shares a reflection from the summer in preparation for the year ahead:
‘This summer I embarked on my very first pilgrimage. With a friend, I walked the St Margaret’s Way, a 100 km walk from Edinburgh to St Andrews, over 5 days. I had been exploring what it means to live a simpler life and developed an interest in pilgrimage. Yet the challenge was daunting: one day would be fine, but what about the cumulative effect of day after day of long(ish)-distance walking?
I am aware that some of you reading this will be seasoned walkers and I am very much a humble beginner. In this sense, the pilgrimage was timely: to embark on this new spiritual practice felt significant in the weeks before commencing studies at SEI. After sore feet on day one, I got into the swing of it and found enjoyment in the meditative physicality of simply walking with God.
On the final day of our walk, the stretch from Kilconquer to St Andrews, we passed this field of wheat (pictured). What struck me about this field, amongst the many along the way, was the blend of mature, golden wheat with the ripening, green patches of the crop in its “milk stage”.
I felt that God might be saying that the golden parts were the areas of my life where I had reached a certain maturity (I am no spring chicken), but there are many green patches woven through this gold. As I stand on the threshold of this new chapter in my life, I know there is much to learn. Some of my green patches are obvious, but I am sure there are several still to be discovered…
As I walked past this field, I happened to be listening to a meditation on the Parable of the Sower (Matt.13: 1-9). My prayer on that day and my prayer now, for all of us at SEI, is that God will be preparing the soil. I pray that all the wheat He has sown in our fields might come to a golden fruition and that the harvest will be abundant.’
Emily Ballard Nairn, August 2026
Please do pray for the SEI students and staff during this significant week in their lives of discipleship.
Photo courtesy of Emily Ballard-Nairn
